1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to cooling systems for integrated circuits and, more specifically, to a heat spreader for a small outline dual in-line memory module (SO-DIMM).
2. Description
As integrated circuits (e.g., central processing units (CPUs) in a computer system) become denser, components inside an integrated circuit chip are drawing more power and thus generating more heat. Various cooling systems have been used to dissipate heat generated by integrated circuit chips, for example within personal computers, mobile computers, or similar electrical devices.
Heat pipes/spreaders are commonly used in a cooling system to dissipate heat generated by integrated circuits (e.g., CPUs and chipsets) inside a computing system. Due to space limitations in today's compact computing systems, a traditional heat pipe/spreader may not work for every circuit inside a computer system, especially inside a laptop computer. For example, SO-DIMMs are often used in a laptop computer and space surrounding a SO-DIMM is so limited that a traditional heat pipe/spreader cannot fit. Thus, almost all laptop computers only rely on convective cooling for SO-DIMMs. However, as the capacity of a SO-DIMMM increases, circuits in a SO-DIMM become denser and as a result, more heat is generated. Convective cooling cannot remain effective in dissipating heat generated by a SO-DIMM as its capacity increases, especially by circuits on the motherboard side of the SO-DIMM, because these circuits typically receive even less convective cooling than circuits on the other side of the SO-DIMM.